Sixteen classic stories from masters of the genre: "The Judge's House", by Bram Stoker; "A Jug of Sirup", by Ambrose Bierce; "The Reconciliation", by Lafcadio Hearn; "The Woman With a Candle" by W. Bourne Cooke; "The Ebony Frame", by E. Nesbit; "On the Northern Ice", by Elia W. Peattie; "The Haunted Doll's House", by M. R. James; "The Old House in Vauxhall Walk", by Charlotte Riddell; "The Underground Ghost", by John Berwick Harwood; "Haunted", by Anon (from Tinsley's Annual); plus five more....

The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of the Best Victorian Ghost Stories

Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula’s Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity’s oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising and often legendary cast, including Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W. F. Harvey. Amelia B. Edwards’s chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce ("The Moonlit Road"), Elizabeth Gaskell ("The Old Nurse’s Story"), and W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey’s Paw") will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.

Murder as a Fine Art

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater", is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London 43 years earlier. The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts". Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter, Emily, and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

Getting to Know Jesus

MacDonald stressed the necessity of salvation and the importance of combining Christian faith with obedience to Jesus' teachings. He also believed that God's universal grace would eventually save everyone. Though written in the mid-19th century, these sermons, including "Mirrors of Christ", "Glorified through Trouble", "Salvation from Sin", and "The Giver of Rest", continue to provide contemporary followers with the spiritual guidance they seek.

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard, renowned creator of Conan the Barbarian, was also a master at conjuring tales of hair-raising horror. In a career spanning only 12 years, Howard wrote more than 100 stories, with his most celebrated work appearing in Weird Tales, the preeminent pulp magazine of the era.

Darkness falls. The undead rise to feast on the succulent blood of the living. For years vampires have fascinated great writers of the occult such as De Maupassant, Count Stenbock, E Nesbit and EF Benson. This is The Story Circle's collection of some of their spine-chilling tales told by award-winning actors.

The Princess and Curdie

In this sequel to The Princess and the Goblin, Curdie has returned to his life as a miner and has dismissed the supernatural happenings of the past, believing them to have been a dream. When Curdie callously wounds a pigeon, his conscience leads him to Princess Irene's mystical great-great-grandmother for help. She has him plunge his hands into a pile of rose petals that burns like fire. Extraordinarily, this grants him the power to see what kind of "animal" a person is at heart.

The Pellew Street Horror & Other Strange True Tales

Thirty-one strange, but true tales to make your flesh creep, to intrigue you, and to give you sleepless nights - all from the pen of Tom Slemen, one of England's top writers and researchers of all things supernatural. Amongst the 31 tales, you will hear about the bizarre, but terrifying creature who terrorised people in Victorian times in Liverpool's Pellew Street. What was he? Man, beast, or some freak of nature hybrid?

Breeds, Book 1

In a near-deserted coastal village, odd things are happening. Strangers are asking questions about the town's recluse. A local hunter discovers naked footprints in the snow. The stray dog population has ceased to exist. And with winter's most powerful weapon bearing down, things are about to become much, much worse. A werewolf book. Not a romance. Not at all.

Edith Nesbit: The Ghost Stories

Edith Nesbit is more famously known as a writer of children’s stories such as The Railway Children. But in this volume we explore her short stories of the macabre and ghostly sort. Thought of as the first modern writer for children she also wrote for adults producing over 50 books in total as well as collections of poetry which we shall explore in a separate volume. These stories are brought to your ears in eerie detail by Ghizela Rowe and Richard Mitchley.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

When a brute of a man tramples an innocent girl, apparently out of spite, two bystanders catch the fellow and force him to pay reparations to the girl's family. The brute's name is Edward Hyde. A respected lawyer, Utterson, hears this story and begins to unravel the seemingly manic behavior of his best friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and his connection with Hyde.

Congo

Deep in the African rain forest, near the legendary ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, an expedition of eight American geologists are mysteriously and brutally killed in a matter of minutes. Ten thousand miles away, Karen Ross, the Congo Project Supervisor, watches a gruesome video transmission of the aftermath: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn, equipment scattered in the mud alongside dead bodies - all motionless except for one moving image - a grainy, dark, man-shaped blur.

Deathless Collection: Books 1-3 and the Prequel Novella

A pyramid predating all known cultures appears without warning. Its discovery throws into question everything we know about the origins of mankind. Inside lies incredible technology, proof of a culture far more advanced than our own. Something dark lurks within, eager to resume a war as old as mankind. When it is unleashed, it heralds the end of our species' reign.

Tales of the Unexpected

Master storyteller, H.H. Munro, better known by the pen name Saki, is famous for his witty, mischievous, and macabre stories of suspense. He specialized in impudent practical jokes, devilish trickery, and incredible yarns and his writing became popular in the early 1900s for its witty and satirical look at the pretensions and ignorance of bourgeois English society.

This collection of classic horror stories is sure to give you goose bumps, raise the hair on the back of your neck, and put some fright in your night. Includes Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch, Coin of the Realm by Charles L. Grant, Something Had to be Done by David Drake, The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner, The Small Assassin by Ray Bradbury, Calling Card by Ramsey Campbell, The Words of Guru by C.M. Kornbluth, and Passengers by Robert Silverberg.

Very Strange Stories: Fifty Astoundingly Queer Tales

There are certain stories which stand out from the crowd owing to the unique creativity of the plot and the skill with which the author unfolds his tale. This selection contains 50 of the most ingenious short stories ever written. Includes: 'The Lighthouse on Shivering Sand' by J. S. Fletcher; 'The Umbrella' by Arnold Bennett; 'The Lovely Lady' by D. H. Lawrence; 'The Lake' by W. F. Harvey; 'A Tiger’s Skin' by W. W. Jacobs; and 'The Strange Case of Mr. Todmorden' by F. Britten Austin.

That Which Should Not Be

Miskatonic University has a long-whispered reputation of being strongly connected to all things occult and supernatural. From the faculty to the students, the fascination with other-worldly legends and objects runs rampant. So, when Carter Weston's professor Dr. Thayerson asks him to search a nearby village for a book that is believed to control the inhuman forces that rule the Earth, Incendium Maleficarum, the student doesn't hesitate to begin the quest.

The Shadow over Innsmouth

Considered to the be one of most influential American authors, Howard Philip Lovecraft is synonymous with some of the best fantasy and horror fiction of the 20th century, second only to Edgar Allan Poe. Innsmouth is a dilapidated seaside town with secrets as a hybrid race of half-human and half-amphibian creatures worship the gods of Cthulhu and Dagon.

Publisher's Summary

A wolf howls through the forests of Transylvania, the murky graveyards of H.P. Lovecraft, the mythic marshes of Count Stenbock and the ghostly vaults of English cathedrals in these timeless stories read by award-winning actors from The Story Circle company.

When I purchased this audiobook, there was no story listing or description so I include one here for those who are interested.

In George MacDonald's THE GREY WOLF, read by David Thorpe, when a young Englishman is stranded in the Shetlands during a storm, an old woman and her beautiful daughter offer him shelter and hospitality.

Nigel Lambert reads Hugh Walpole's TARNHELM. A man recollects his childhood, which was lonely and uneventful until the Christmas holidays of 1890, when he stayed with two of his uncles at Faildyke Hall.

THE THING IN THE FOREST by Bernard Capes is a breathtakingly brief tale from "the snow-locked forests of northern Hungary," read to great effect by Liza Ross.

Sean Barrett reads THE WHITE WOLF OF KOSTOPHCHIN, Gilbert Campbell's story of a wealthy, dissolute, and disgraced Muscovite who finds himself exiled to his Lithuanian estate where he ignores a servant's sound advice.

Garrick Hagon reads H.P. Lovecraft's THE HOUND, in which the protagonist opens the tale explaining he is about to take his own life. He goes on to recall the events which led to his present situation and the death of his friend.

David Thorpe reads GABRIEL-ERNEST by Saki (H.H. Munro). As usual, Saki's dark humor is mixed with irony and satire. (For diehard Saki fans, one might say this is a werewolf story with a touch of "Esme" and a dash of "The Music on the Hill.")

THE WHITE WOLF OF THE HARZ MOUNTAINS by Frederick Marryat, is read by Hayward Morse, and is unique in that it features the first female werewolf ever to appear in a short story.

Anne Rosenfeld reads THE OTHER SIDE: A BRETON LEGEND by Eric Stenbock. "And just then all shuddered, and all made the sign of the cross except Mère Pinquèle, for they heard that most dreadful of dreadful sounds...the howl of the wolf...."

Garrick Hagon reads Bierce's STALEY FLEMING'S HALLUCINATION, in which a man sends for his doctor only to tell him why he suspects that his medical advice is unlikely to be of much use.

Anne Rosenfeld reads the very short story, A WEREWOLF OF THE CAMPAGNA by Mary Crawford Fraser, which features the unusual setting of the Alameda.

While most story collections tend to be uneven, I found all the stories here to be wonderful and the narrators absolutely outstanding. I would definitely listen to another "The Story Circle presents..." production.